2010 Week 2: Beginnings...

Christmas decorations have slowly come down, the cards remain.
Wanting to savor each one, I remembered someone who, after the holidays were over, pulled one out each day to pray for that person or family and wrote them a letter! I don't know that I will accomplish all that, but for the first week I chose these:

The Mother and Child card was drawn by a son  to carry on his late father's tradition of designing their own family Christmas card each year. Two others were handmade using cuttings, two are put out by Operation Mobilization, one came from a state penitentiary, one from the Netherlands and another from my dear Uruguayan friend now in California. So many stories represented in one photo.

Time to write out ideas, plans, goals for this new year. I got out all my tools: a Bible reading plan; a special cookbook; three types of calendars.

Mike and I are reading through the Old Testament together.
The free monthly calendar was too ugly to hang so I use it to write in all the optional activities or involvements and visualize in order to narrow down the list. Both of us are finding there is way too much we would like to do.
The pad of weekly layouts I use for daily to do lists and photos ideas for Project 365.
Elogio de la cocina, literally translates In Praise of the Kitchen/Cookery. A close equivalent is Joy of Cooking, however, it is very different from any cookbook I have ever seen. My SIL thought of me because it combines stories and recipes. One of the first articles she read in Spanish was an interview with author Cristina Bajo. It is printed on glossy paper and has beautiful old illustrations.

The first paragraph reads,

Cooking has always been for me, more than an act of nutrition, it is an act of pleasure and friendship, of affection toward my kin, toward friends, and a welcome to new acquaintances. Perhaps it runs in the family: my parents were excellent hosts; my mother, a very good cook.

I was immediately convicted of a lack in my life, and inspired to become a joyful cook. 

I completed a couple writing tasks this week and continue plugging away at others. One involves the artist friend who left us Christmas Eve. I moved his painting to this little shelf alongside some other treasured items.

I tried to sneak a picture of Mike in his newly set up pottery studio.
Oops! He must've heard me.

Today we set out early for the exciting beginning of another FIRST Robotics build season--the new game BREAKAWAY was announced via simulcast to some 59 Kick Off venues in 15 time zones.

The sunrise was beautiful as we drove in to Muncie.

While the team was brainstorming, I spent a couple hours at the new coffee shop downtown--VECINOS, Spanish for 'neighbors'.